A smile fluttered over her lips. She nodded.
“I was letting Dryden win.” His voice hitched. He forced himself to continue. “But no more. No more. I’m going to fight. I’m going to be better. Open. Trusting. Happy. And I can only do that with you beside me.”
Footfalls echoed through the woods. Dark figures fought through the brambles toward them.
“I never stopped… you know. Loving you. You make me a better man. That damned light of hope...”
Tears ran down her cheeks in little streams, mixing with the rain. Tears that washed away his sins and made him whole.
“I love you, Trent. I always will.”
Darkness closed in, narrowing his vision to include only Risa. “You make me stronger, Rees. Stronger than I could ever be alone.”
“Stronger together,” she said.
He felt the corners of his mouth tilt upward in a smile.
Nikki
A little while later…
Nikki always assumed jail would be a horrible place. Caged like an animal. Strange women bullying. Deputies watching your every move.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
The pod where she slept reminded her more of a dorm than a cage. Bunk beds lined one wall. Tables with attached benches filled the rest of the room. Televisions spotted the walls. Books brought from the library for borrowing. Card games. Crafts.
Of course, deputies were watching, and some of the women were assholes. But all-in-all, Nikki was just grateful to be away from Eddie. Grateful to have food and a bed. Grateful to feel somewhat safe.
She couldn’t stop the dreams. One minute Eddie would be killing Risa, the next making love to her in front of Nikki. He’d tell Nikki how much he loved her, then a moment later, he’d strip her in the middle of a busy street and hold a knife to her throat.
Nikki would wake up in a cold sweat, sometimes screaming, sometimes missing him so bad it hurt.
The only thing that cleared her mind was a visit from Risa. Every day, Nikki’s big sister was waiting in one of the tiny visiting rooms. Every day, she let Nikki talk through her dreams and focus herself back on reality. Every day she let Nikki know she cared.
Nikki talked to a few psychiatrists, and the court appointed a lawyer; a woman who didn’t seem that much older than her named Tamara Wade. She and Nikki went to court hearings and sat through what seemed like endless meetings. And one day, when Risa waited on the other side of the glass in the visiting room, Nikki finally had some good news to share.
“We met with the district attorney.” No, that wasn’t right. It was important that Nikki report this right. “Assistant District Attorney, I think.”
Risa leaned forward, one hand pressing the visiting room phone to her ear, the other bracing herself on the stainless steel countertop. “And?”
“He was nice, I guess. Reminded me of a cowboy. His name was Dillon.”
“What did he say?”
Nikki smiled. She hadn’t done much of that lately, but it felt good. “I shouldn’t tease you, should I?”
“So it’s something good then?”
“Yeah. Tamara says it’s really good.”
“You’re going to be released?”
Nikki felt her smile droop. “No.”
“What is it, Nikki? Don’t make me guess.”
“I have to stay in jail.”
“Yes…”
“But as long as I keep talking to a psychiatrist, I won’t be a felony.”
“A felon, you mean? They aren’t going to charge you with a felony?”
“That’s good, right?”
Risa beamed. “That’s really good, Nik.”
Nikki was glad. For a while there, she was worried that she’d misunderstood. She should have paid more attention in school. Hell, she should have actually gone to school instead of skipping. “But I have to stay here in jail.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“Okay. Tamara said I can get my G.E.D.”
“That would be terrific, Nikki. Does Tamara know how long you’ll be here?”
Nikki shook her head. “But she said it won’t be longer than a year. At least that’s what she thinks. She has to ask a judge or something.”
A slow smile spread over Risa’s lips, and Nikki thought she saw something that looked like a twinkle in her eyes.
“What is it?”
“What’s what?”
“You have some news to tell me, too?”
“Actually, I have something to ask.”
“Something to ask me?”
“Yes.”
Nikki waited for her sister to say what it was, but she just sat there smiling and tapping her hand on the stainless steel, like she thought Nikki might catch on.
Nikki didn’t catch on. “What is it?”
“I was wondering if you would be my maid of honor.”
It took Nikki a moment to remember what it was a maid of honor did. She looked down at Risa’s tapping hand, and the diamond ring that rapped against the counter. “You and Trent again?”
“Yes.”
“Risa, that’s wonderful.” A mix of emotion bombarded Nikki, making it hard to tell whether the tears in her eyes were from happiness or envy. Nikki thought about her wedding. The perfect dress. The perfect makeup. But the setting, the witnesses, and the groom were something she wanted to forget.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t ask you to be my maid-of-honor,” Nikki whispered into the receiver.
“Oh, honey… You’ll get married again someday. To a great guy. I have no doubt.”
Nikki nodded, but she never saw herself marrying again. She would rather die. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be happy for her sister. She just had to work at it a little. “So Trent is doing well?”
“He is. Of course, he probably wouldn’t tell me if he wasn’t, but he’s getting around more every day.”
“Did he get down on one knee and all that?”
“Yes. I had to help him up, but…”
“Tell me about it… the wedding…”
“Well, I figured we’d plan it for a little over a year from now. Maybe August. That way we might be able to book this old B&B on Chesapeake Bay. We can get married overlooking the water.”
Risa continued, telling Nikki about her plans, just like they were real sisters. It was a nice dream, that Nikki could get out of this place and go on to live a normal life, stand up in a wedding, maybe even get married herself, but Nikki didn’t believe for one moment that the fantasy could be real.
When their time was finally up, and Nikki went back to the pod, all she could think about was the next time she could have a cigarette. She would work hard. She would rebuild her life. But it wasn’t going to be the kind of life she’d dreamed about before or the kind of life Risa was hoping for her now. Romance and marriage, working to get her mother’s notice, her daddy’s approval, her sister’s loyalty. Her husband’s love.
That Nikki was gone.
And as far as she was concerned, good riddance.
Risa
A year later…
“Risa and Trent,” the pastor said. Dressed in white robes, he looked down at them and smiled. “If it is your intention to share with each other your joys and sorrows and all that the years will bring, then with your promises bind yourselves to each other as husband and wife.”
Risa turned to hand Nikki her bouquet. Her sister had changed a lot over the past fourteen months, and not in a way Risa would have guessed. The afraid, naïve girl had grown into a chain-smoking party animal, once she’d been released from jail, but Risa doubted that image had anything to do with the real woman underneath.
But Nikki had insisted she was okay, that she needed to live her own life, that Risa needed to live hers. And so Risa had respected that. She couldn’t go from nearly ignoring the girl to controlling her life, after all. That their relationship existed, even though they lived half way across the country from one another, was a miracle in itself.